Since 1997, researchers from the Institute of Archaeology, Warsaw University have been finding traces of Roman military
presence in Crimea. Excavations have helped to discover several structures connected with the presence of Roman troops on the north
coast of the Black Sea. The first Roman military installation to be discovered and excavated in the Crimea was the ruins of a fort on
the Ai-Todor cape (ancient Charax). In the neighborhood of the fort, a barbarian burial ground was found which revealed a burying
tradition atypical of the Crimea: cremation in common, the deposition of ashes in amphorae and equipping graves with iron tools and
pieces of weaponry. Such a burial site is practically unique in the Crimea. The most similar typologically, and that has been excavated
and described in print is the necropolis at Tschatyrdag. It is important to establish whether people from the barbarian garrison were
buried near a fort which had been built by Roman soldiers. An initial survey of Tschatyrdag in the spring of 2008 produced several
sections of stone embankments and many single well dressed stone blocks. In the course of fieldwork in the summer of 2008, the best
preserved part of the defensive wall with the straight line of the wall face was found.
Research so far suggests that the fortification was built in first centuries of AD. Further excavations may produce more information....
Karasiewicz-Szczypiorski, Radosław; Mamuladze, Shota; Aslanischvili, Lasha; Daszkiewicz, Małgorzata(Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean, 2018)
The article collects the modest information on the use (and
possible production) of ceramic building material by the Roman army in
Colchis, using it as a backdrop for presenting the exceptional richness, in
quantity as much as diversity, of finds from Gonio/Apsaros. They are made
even more exceptional by the signatures found on these products. The article
presents documented examples of stamps on bricks, roof tiles and ceramic
pipes from the fort and links them with construction project of specific Roman
army units in the Cappadocia province. The results of laboratory tests
conducted on samples of ceramic products and raw clay from Gonio,
presented in Part 2, are an important element of the presented analysis.
Based on these results, it has been possible to distinguish two reference
groups for the production of which clay from near the fort was used.
However, it has not been possible to indicate the specific deposits of such
raw material used by the Roman army....
Karasiewicz-Szczypiorski, Radosław; Mamuladze, Shota(PRO GEORGIA JOURNAL OF KARTVELOLOGICAL STUDIES, 2019)
In 2018, the Polish-Georgian Gonio-Apsaros Expedition under the supervision of
the authors of this text continued research into the issue of the early presence of a Roman
garrison at the mouth of the Chorokhi River. Two narrow trenches were opened
along the road located north of the late Roman and Byzantine fortifications. Places
were selected in which traces of earlier fortifications were expected to be found. The
foundations of defensive walls were discovered in both survey trenches. It came as
some surprise that in both cases the remains of two lines of walls had been preserved.
The analysis of the architectural relicts and the accompanying layers enables stating
that these are the traces of two different construction phases which did not occur simultaneously.
The earlier fortifications (wall A) can most probably be linked to the fort’s
inner structures from Phase 1, among which the recently discovered granary (horreum)
can be included. The later defensive wall (wall B) was probably constructed at the
same time as the buildings classified as belonging to Phase 2. These same fortifications
most probably continued to be in use along with the buildings considered to be part
of Phase 3. Garrison bathhouse (balneum) were built in place of the above-mentioned
grain storage building during Phase 2, while the commander’s house (praetorium) was
erected during Phase 3....
Despite many years of research at the site, the
Roman fort at Cape Aj-Todor near Yalta remains relatively
poorly studied. A better understanding of the
discoveries made at the site can be reached by comparing
them with the results of the excavations conducted
in another fort also located in Crimea – at Balaklava-
Kadykovka. This text is an attempt at gathering together
all the published information about the discoveries made at Cape Aj-Todor. The comparison of the research results
from both sites has enabled establishing numerous similarities
between them. Both forts functioned simultaneously,
and their architectural remains can be qualified to
identically dated phases. The final effect of the analysis
undertaken by the author is a more complete plan of the
fort at Cape Aj-Todor along with its surroundings, processed
in a new graphic formula....